


The Color of Desire

by asktheravens



Series: The Mating of Fire and Ice [1]
Category: Marvel, Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Fluff, Jotun Loki, Jotun!Loki, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 02:56:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1802773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asktheravens/pseuds/asktheravens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince Loki of Jotunheim was promised to Thor as a child, but sees his betrothed only in short visits.  This time, though, Thor has come to pay court in earnest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Color of Desire

**Author's Note:**

> Written for thescentofwhiteroses, based on ideas from Tumblr users lokis-gspot and thorkizilla.
> 
> Many thanks to Mari for her encouragement and thoughtful beta reading!
> 
> And finally, for Megan, because we created Jotunheim together.
> 
> If you are curious, a dragon seal is part arctic leopard seal, and part Mosasaurus.

The only red in Jotunheim was in the eyes of her people, unless Prince Loki’s betrothed had come to pay court.For a few days each summer, the pallid Jotnar sun had a break from the endless shades of grey, blue, and white and the dim gloom of its rays illuminated a riot of not only red but dozens of other unknown colors.The Aesir royal visits brought orange and pink, green, yellow and even purple to the halls of Laufey’s somber palace.The Jotun courtiers complained that the strange hues deceived their eyes and gave them headaches, but they sought out the foreign names of each one, eager to pin them down with a word.Even after the visitors left, they held the taste of those strange words gingerly in their mouths and tried to remember what a flower smelled like before it froze.

They were not the only ones who tried to hold something in their mind after the yearly departure, for each visit gave the princes their only chance to assess each other face-to-face.The previous summer, Thor had been less than impressive, and Loki had had nothing to remember except spilled food, a cracking voice, and knobby elbows.Laufey had warned his son that Asgardians were slower to mature than Jotun, and Loki had seen the truth of it.He had grown slim and graceful, and the round cheeks and belly of his babyhood had long since chiseled away.Even his horns had at last begun to grow in, and he’d decorated them for his future spouse with intricate gold wire and tiny crystals like the ones braided into his long dark hair.His first Change had still not come, though, and it loomed over Loki.His changing body left him irritable, but watching his brother Helblindi grow by exponents each season was even worse.Though younger than Loki, his horns were far more impressive, and if he mastered his ability to shift before Loki did he might even find a mate first.There was no one Loki loved or hated more than Jotunheim’s second prince (though the hate was fresh, and the love an old, confirmed habit), and he held little hope that Prince Thor would do anything to speed up the process. 

He waited, feigning boredom, next to his father the king.He expected another week of endless receptions and feasts and spending only a few hours with Prince Thor, hours that felt like babysitting even with chaperones in the room.Still, he wanted to see if his betrothed remained awkward and boastful by turns, if his skin had cleared, if his teeth had straightened.More than that, he wouldn’t miss his chance to see colors.

Laufey sat on his throne of carved ice with his whole sombre court arrayed around him, and Loki took the seat sculpted into the right armrest that would not fit any other Jotun.His much larger younger brothers flanked the throne, massive Helblindi on Loki’s side and little Byleistr taking up the left for his first official appearance at a court function.Loki had long since learned not to fidget.Father wanted everyone in place long before the Asgardians arrived, and his younger sons needed the practice to stay still in their heavy formal jewelry. A proper Jotun would no more ask for a chair than a glacier would, and it amused Loki to watch his brothers struggle for the royal air they would need to perfect so Father could find them mates.Byleistr shifted back and forth on his feet and his face was locked in a queasy grimace of nerves.Loki kept seeing his hand twitch and knew he had to force himself not to worry at his sore and aching horn buds, as well.He broke from his calm pose and gave his brother a smile of encouragement, though it also promised dire consequences if the littlest prince embarrassed him in front of his betrothed.

The heavy doors slid open with the whisper of ice on ice and all the Jotun went still, waiting.Loki returned to his perfect, falsely disinterested slouch and subtly arranged the drape of his favorite fur.The others stood nearly nude to display their complex pale markings, but Loki preferred his thick wrap that left only his delicate, jewel studded hands on display.He’d chosen the pale silver of dragon seal, flecked with darker, iridescent spots, to meet Thor.He had some more ostentatious, but he liked to remind Jotun and Aesir alike that he was kin to predator, not prey, and Jotunheim had few animals more dangerous than these.He liked the soft, dense plush of it, and it kept his butt from falling asleep on his narrow, icy seat.King Laufey wore a heavy robe of quilted and embroidered bluish white spider silk, stitched all over with intricate patterns of tiny, glittering teeth.Loki doubted Thor would notice, but King Odin would know it had come from Svartalfheim.Laufey meant to remind the Allfather that there were rivals for his favor here, other realms that traded and courted the Jotnarr.His father graced him with the barest hint of a nod before he looked away.Loki made sure his braids hung fetchingly over his shoulders and acted like he hadn’t a care in the world.

Thor no longer waddled down the length of the room with a chubby fist around the Queen’s fingers, nor did he trail reluctantly after his father the King.This season, Prince Thor led his people into Jotunheim, and even Loki couldn’t entirely feign disinterest for Thor had at last caught up with his betrothed.His height had increased again and his body had filled out, his once-gawky limbs now swinging with muscular purpose as he approached the throne.He grinned at Loki like a flash of sun through the clouds before his expression firmed into one he seemed to think made him look more like the crown prince.His mother and father and a dozen other Asgardians followed him, but Loki paid them no attention.He leaned forward, his eyes narrowed to an appraising stare.

Thor reached the foot of Laufey’s raised throne and swept into an expert bow.With one arm he flung out his magnificent scarlet cape, and his golden hair stood out against the warm brown fur that lined it.This was much better, indeed, Loki thought.

“I, Thor, Son of Odin, Son of Bor, heir apparent to the realms of Asgard and Alfheim, extend greetings to you, Laufey, Born of the Winter Sea, King of the Jotnarr and Lord of the Drowned Gates, on behalf of my royal parents and the people of our realm.”Thor’s voice, deepened with a new and pleasing baritone timbre, didn’t break and he didn’t stumble as he delivered his recitation.  

“Nicely done,” Laufey said.He smiled as the Jotun did, with no teeth showing, and Loki knew he remembered that the last time Thor had tried to present himself, he had barely mumbled out his own patronymics and had failed utterly to speak the lineages.“We are pleased to accept your greetings.How do you come to us, Thor Odinson?”

“In peace and friendship, Your Majesty.I come as your future son.”A faint rumble went through the crowd of Jotun at this.

“You come as a man?” King Laufey could modulate his voice to express a faint skepticism that was every bit as withering as the wind off the Northern Sea, but Thor only grinned.

“I come as a suitor.I am ready to court my betrothed.”Thor’s white teeth flashed to Loki and quickly back to the king.His bow never wavered or shook.

“So you say.Rise and present yourself.”Thor stood and came three steps closer.A long, silent moment passed as Laufey and his court stared down at the prince with faces as implacable as a fjord, but he never flinched or fidgeted.Loki himself thought of and emulated the moon, cool and kind and distant.

“Prince Loki is as yet too young for marriage,” Laufey said at last, but no word of rejection.

“As am I,” Thor said.“But we are old enough for the preliminary stages of courtship.”Thor only looked hopeful.

“You will have to perform a task, to prove yourself worthy of him.”

“I am ready,” Thor said, and there was the hint of boasting that Loki remembered.

“No, you are not,” Laufey said.“No one ever is.Still, I will allow you to continue for now, so long as my son has no objections.”They both looked to Loki.He had prepared several objections for this occasion, but looking at his handsome prince he found no voice for them.He bowed his head slightly in assent.

“I accept the Odinson’s suit,” he said.His father nodded as well, and if he was surprised that his oldest son had given up a chance to create drama, he didn’t let it show on his face.

“You have our permission.Please present your royal parents.”

“There is one other thing I would ask, Your Majesty.A boon.”Thor bowed again, and one of Laufey’s brows rose just slightly.

“What is that, Prince of the Aesir?”

“Oh Great King of Winter, Father of Loki my betrothed, lovely as the moon on virgin snow, grant me one hour’s time to present gifts to your son…in privacy.”Both of Laufey’s brows rose, and then went another increment higher when he looked at his son and saw the brief flicker of his blue-black tongue over his lips.

“I do not believe that would be appropriate,” he said, his voice like a tomb slamming shut.Both boys looked so disappointed that it nearly startled a laugh out of the Jotun king.Some softer instinct moved his heart at that, for he had once been young and infatuated with his future queen.He thought he felt the ghost of her strong hand at the small of his back, steadying him.Years later, he still felt her like a missing limb.“Still, it is wise that you get to know each other,” he continued.“I will grant you your hour, Thor Odinson, to win what affection you may, but the door will be left open and Loki’s brothers will guard it.”Surely they couldn’t do anything too bad under such conditions, the king thought.

 

Loki had exchanged gifts with Thor before, of course, mostly in an impersonal formal setting.But he had a few that came from Thor himself, little treasures carefully kept.Though he would deny that he cared at all about his Aesir oaf, he flew into a terrible rage if either his brothers or a servant dared to touch his keepsakes.This time, they had a little chamber to themselves, and true to the spirit of his boon Laufey had put them somewhere that few people had any business wandering by.A tall window looked out over a lovely but lonely view of Queen Farbauti’s overgrown icethorn garden, and the sculpted bench had the angular grace of natural crystals that she’d favored.It faced out where an evening snowfall had begun, soft and quiet for once without the constant moan of wind.The princes entered, but Loki paused in the doorway to have a moment with his brothers.They looked at him with love, and the desire to please, as they always had, even a bit of fear for their seidr-wielding brother in their gazes.Loki held his hands out and his brothers gave him their left wrists.Loki placed a quick, firm kiss on each, right on the knot-like marks that showed their pulse point, and then allowed them each to kiss his own.Their loyalty assured, he gave them one simple order:

“Don’t disturb us,” Loki said.“And you won’t get in trouble.”They nodded and Loki went in to join Thor on the couch, eager to receive his gifts. 

Thor had picked up on what he liked over the years, and had chosen his first suitor’s gifts to fit a theme.He presented Loki with a delicate chain of rubies first, then a single perfect blooming rose suspended in a globe of liquid crystal, then a dish of ripe strawberries so rich in hue they seemed to glow against the hard blue plane of the ice couch.Loki accepted these with a nod and a smile.

“I know you like books,” he said, and handed Loki a slim volume bound in leather the lustrous color of heart blood.Loki appreciated it, let his hands run over it and thought about Thor’s skin instead of the hide binding.The vellum slid through his fingers with a satisfying weight to it, and the Aesir runes flowed under his eyes like rows of teeth.

“I do like books,” Loki said.He knew Thor did not.“What is it about?”

“It’s stories, mostly.But…there are some poems, at the end.”Loki wanted to stop and examine all the strange illustrations, for they not only shone with rich color and glints of gilt like the Odinson’s hair, but also moved when the light hit them to better indicate the action.Pages of sailing ships and weeping maidens went by, a comically ugly dwarf poured endless mead, a woman with half a face held a scale before a trembling hero.He had heard of poems before, and of fiction, but the Jotun did not make them, and he had never had any of his own before.Still, he tore his eyes away from the book, because he would have it far longer than he would have Thor.

“You offer pleasing gifts,” he said.He slid closer to Thor on the bench and hesitated, one ear cocked to see if his brothers would protest.“You eat these?” he said as he examined a strawberry.

“Yes,” Thor said.“They’re one of my favorites.”

“Let me taste,” Loki said.With a wicked grin, he opened his mouth and leaned forward for Thor to feed him.

“I don’t know,” Thor teased.“What do I get in return?”He picked up one perfect berry and held it between them.

“What would you have?” Loki asked.The lack of a chaperone made him bold.His father would never have allowed flirting.

“A kiss,” Thor said, and there was a breathless pause as he waited to see how Loki would react to his daring.“One kiss for each,” he said.

“A bargain, I suppose, to have the crown prince serve me.Very well, I accept.”Loki leaned even further into Thor, until their faces were only a handspan distant, and parted his lips.Thor placed the fruit between his teeth and Loki bit down.

Juice burst over his tongue and filled his mouth with the taste of summer.He’d read about Asgard, about the golden sun that shone on a land as green as Jotunheim was white, but for the first time he began to understand what a wide, strange, wondrous place it must be.He held the fruit against the roof of his mouth and crushed it against his teeth, eyes closed, cradling the pulp on his tongue so he could savor and distinguish every nuance.He thought he even felt the ghost of the foreign sun that had ripened the berry, hot on his lips, but it was Thor taking his due.Thor’s kiss was warm and soft, and the boy he would one day marry tasted like sunlight and unknown worlds.Loki found he liked kissing very much indeed.

They spoke little, but Thor got bolder with each berry and each time Loki didn’t say no.After three he stroked Loki’s long hair and ran the braids between his fingers while Loki’s ornaments accompanied his movements with faint musical chimes.By the sixth, their thighs were touching on the bench.When Thor fed him the last one, they grinned at each other, and in the final exchange of gifts, their tongues came together.One was cool and rough and the other smooth and warm, but both tasted of strawberries and risk, and they broke away only when Helblindi cleared his throat at the door.

“Pleasing gifts indeed,” Loki purred.He already missed the warmth of Thor’s mouth.“Does one not eat the…hats?” he asked, gesturing to the green tops left in the bowl.He thought maybe they were the best part, for even in the royal palace it was rare for a Jotun to waste anything edible.

“No, they don’t taste good,” Thor assured him.“You taste good, though,” he added, and his face turned even pinker.

“You are not as hopeless as you were last year,” Loki offered.Thor’s praise pleased him, but compliments were not in his nature.Thor winced, but he didn’t stop smiling, and Loki was glad he heard the fondness in his mockery.

“I was kind of a disaster, wasn’t I?”

“Yes.”

“I’m ready now, though.Once I decide to do something, I do it properly.”

“And you’ve decided to court me?”

“I have.”

“Then read me one of your poems,” Loki said.“I want to remember your voice when I read them later.”

“All right…um…I don’t know which one you’d like to hear.”

“This one,” Loki said, and his little snare pulled shut around Thor.He’d chosen the very last, the one written in a different hand, crabbed and blotted with tiny specks of ink.“You wrote this one, didn’t you?”

“I tried,” Thor admitted.Loki was starting to learn the face he made when he felt the need to overcome fear with bravery.“It’s not much.Maybe you’d rather hear a different one.”

“No.I’ll have this one, or our time is up.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll read it.But you have to…make one up for me,” Thor said, trying to get Loki on an even challenge.

“Oh, I am no poet, betrothed.What you call poems, we call spells, and if I spoke to you of love with seidr on my tongue you would be bewitched beyond all escape.”

“I might like that,” Thor’s grin said that he didn’t realize how serious Loki was.

“Maybe another time,” Loki said.Love spells were tricky anyway, and their effects unpredictable; he wouldn’t risk it until he was older and had better control.“But it is fair that I offer you something…” Thor looked hopeful, and Loki made a great show of thinking what he could allow.“I know.Read me your words, and if they please me, you may touch my…furs.”His father would have choked on his tongue if he knew, but he was far away and occupied.Loki leaned back a bit and arranged himself so Thor could see the faint outline of his body beneath the voluminous pelt.Thor’s hands twitched with eagerness toward Loki, but he only took the book from him and began to read.

It was a terrible poem, in fairness, the verbal equivalent of a pot boy falling down a flight of stairs, but it was short, and Loki enjoyed it.It was his, like Thor, and despite its faults he would guard it jealously.Thor didn’t stammer, at least, and Loki let his voice soak into his memory to be replayed later.By the time he reached the last stanza, Thor’s face had gone nearly as red as his cloak and he tugged his collar away from his neck as he finished.

“That was lovely,” Loki half lied.He suspected that if he was in any way critical, Thor would never make the effort again.He took the book back from Thor and gave him his promised reward.They had touched before, but this was different.Loki savored each callus on Thor’s hand as he guided it to the fur covering his stomach, and even through the dense plush of the dragon seal pelt he could feel the heat of his body.Thor stroked him like a cat, though the fur was so thick it didn’t matter which direction he went.It could keep the frigid brine of the Northern Sea from reaching the seal’s heart, but it couldn’t keep out Thor’s warmth, and Loki leaned into his touch.

“I’ve never seen you without furs on,” Thor said.“I was starting to wonder if you were hiding something under them.”

“I might be.You’ll have to check very thoroughly,” Loki said.He closed his eyes, but he immediately wanted to be able to see Thor’s face again.He opened one eye and hoped it wasn’t too odd.

“I will,” Thor promised.He didn’t seem bothered.He seemed lost in wonder, exploring Loki’s form through the thick, soft fur.As Loki got closer to his first change and true physical maturity, his body had begun to develop a certain fullness over the lean muscle.Thor discovered the curve of his hip and began to stroke from waist to thigh with one hand.His other hand had found the swell of Loki’s chest and with gentle squeezes he made out the shape of Loki’s budding breasts. Loki could feel an answering heat spreading through his belly.

“You have been hiding something,” Thor chuckled.

“Does it please you?” Loki struggled to keep back the sounds he longed to make as Thor’s hand travelled lower on his abdomen.

“Very much,” Thor said.He had grown even warmer and, although he had read that Asgardians didn’t experience a rutting frenzy like the Jotun, he could smell a faint hint of Thor’s lust.He memorized it as best he could, for it would be a very long time before they could come together as mates.Loki had not minded that until now.

Thor found the concealed split in Loki’s furs and his fingers began questing for bare skin.He brushed one of Loki’s markings and sent a shudder all through him.It had to stop, Loki realized; he was surprised his brothers had ignored it this long, for no matter what they promised him, they owed their father more.

“Stop,” he said, and caught Thor’s wrist.Thor did as he asked, but his eyes were bright and his breath short, and he smelled better than any feast Loki had ever attended.

“Do you want to hear another poem first?” Thor asked.

“We can’t,” Loki said, jerking his head toward the door.“Not here,” he whispered.He certainly had Thor’s interest now.“Would you like to see beneath my furs?” he asked, and Thor nodded with enthusiasm.“Then we’ll have to go elsewhere, somewhere more private.”

“Your brothers…”

“My brothers are many things,” Loki said.He concentrated on his hands and a ball of green power began to grow between them.“Loyal, certainly.Strong.Normal sized, even.”He tied off the woven illusion and let it go.“But they aren’t sorcerers,” he finished.The image of the two of them talking wasn’t perfect, and it was impossible to tell how natural the sound would be, but he thought it would do long enough for them to get out.Thor looked impressed and Loki preened.

“Now we can sneak out,” he said.“But I need one more thing before I let you do as I offered.”

“What’s that?” Thor said.“Anything you want,” he promised, for he had not yet learned not to make rash oaths where Loki was concerned.

“I’ll need another gift from you,” Loki said.Thor had been on the right track with his crimson gifts, for Loki was fond of the color.But what Loki really wanted, what he really loved, were not so much things that were red as things that were Thor’s.He’d stolen Thor’s cloak the first time they met as little more than infants, and he still had the faded square of fur and wool tenderly folded under his pillow.Now, nearly an adult, he wanted another, a way to wrap himself in Thor’s smell and bask in his remembered warmth.

“Give me this,” he said.He fingered the fur of Thor’s beautiful cape and admitted, if only to himself, that he’d coveted it from the moment Thor walked into the throne room.“And I’ll believe you are serious.”

“All right,” Thor agreed with no hesitation.In the moment he did not think about how he had promised not to remove it.He only wanted Loki to be happy, and to see Loki wearing something of his.He reached up to undo the clasp, but Loki stopped him.

“Not yet,” he said.He led Thor to the window and opened it.An icy draft ruffled their hair and Thor’s eyes watered.Loki stepped up onto the low sill and Thor followed him, but it was a long drop to the sprawling ice gardens below.

“How are we going to get down?” Thor asked.

“Do you have faith in me?” 

“Yes,” Thor still didn’t hesitate, and Loki was pleased.He stepped into Thor’s arms and they held on to each other.

“Then step out.”Together they walked into the empty air and Loki cast the spell to slow their fall.The princes plummeted for a panicked few heartbeats, as Loki had failed to account properly for Thor’s extra weight, but he caught them at the end.Instead of the graceful, floating descent he had planned, they ended up face first in the packed snow of a path and rolled to a stop a few yards further, tangled together at the base of a dormant icethorn bush.Loki got to his feet instantly and began straightening his hair and clothes so he would look put together by the time Thor stood up and dusted the crystalline twigs off his pants.

“What do they feed you in Asgard,” Loki snapped.“Lard and lead?”

“That was amazing!” Thor said.“Could you show me how to do that?”

“I doubt it,” Loki sniffed.“Now come on, we don’t have much time.”Loki raised two fingers to his mouth and blew a long, modulated whistle.They couldn’t hear it, but they could feel the vibration in the roots of their hair.A few seconds later, Loki’s frosthound climbed down one of the palace’s sheer ice walls and bounded to a halt at his side.His pet had matured as well, and his shoulder was above the level of their heads.Thor took an involuntary step back, warned by instinct or memory to avoid a tongue full of gelid spittle.

“Frosty is…bigger than I remember,” Thor said.Laufey had placed the hound in his eldest son’s cradle as a pup long ago, and Thor had had several run ins with Loki’s loyal pet over the years, but the beast had always been smaller than he was.

“His name is Fenrir now,” Loki told him with his nose held high.The hound had borne many names over his life, for Loki changed it at a whim, but he always came when his master whistled.He held the first name Loki had given him in his heart, and he still thought of himself as “Mine”.“He’s going to help us.”Thor offered the icebeast his hand with only a little reluctance.Fenrir sniffed his palm and then his long, black tongue coiled around Thor’s forearm.Thor felt the tip of it against the soft crook of his elbow, cold even through his heavy clothes, as it circled and probed.The hound tasted the warmth of his pulse and soon his soft, frigid lips closed over Thor’s hand and he felt the smooth curve of teeth against his fingers.

“He wishes you to scritch him,” Loki informed him.Thor raised a tentative hand to the Jotunhound’s neck and buried his fingers into the dark ruff of fur, glad of his gloves.He scratched and Fenrir closed all four of his dark eyes in pleasure.After a moment he whuffled a damp breath at Thor and released his arm.He butted the prince with enough affection to half knock him over and returned to Loki.

“He will bear you now, I think,” Loki said.He put a hand on Thor’s shoulder and pressed down.Thor caught on and went to one knee in the snow.He offered Loki his cupped hands to boost him, but Loki planted his foot on Thor’s thigh instead and vaulted into a graceful side-seat on Fenrir’s shoulders.He held a hand out to Thor and he jumped up with Loki’s help to sit astride behind him.Loki kept a light hold on Fenrir’s ruff, but his balance kept him sure in his seat.Thor wrapped his arms around Loki’s waist and pressed against his back, closer than necessary, but Loki allowed it even if his betrothed’s reddened nose had begun to drip.

Fenrir galloped through the silent garden, leaving no tracks.Loki guided him with the pressure of his hands and nothing else, and he scaled the wall of ice blocks with two great leaps.They still did not ride through Jotunheim proper, but they were soon in the least travelled portion of the palace grounds, nearly to the outermost wall.Loki tugged on Fenrir’s ruff and they slid to a halt in front of an outcropping of rock and ice, humped smooth with wind-scoured snow.Loki gave Thor a shove and he fell backwards off their mount, landing on his butt in the snow.Thor got up looking angry, but Loki’s laugh was pure delight.

“I shouldn’t have,” Loki said, which was not the same as saying he was sorry.It wouldn’t do to begin their courtship with too many lies.“But you look so funny when it puffs up around you.”

“If you’re going to abuse me, I should get a bonus,” Thor said.He grinned at Loki and forgot about the bruise.

“Very well.” Loki held his arms out and Thor took him by the waist and set him down.“I’ll think of something to salve your wounds.”Thor looked so eager for the things his little smile promised that Loki laughed again.

“But why here?” Thor asked.

“Like many things around here, it’s appearance is deceiving,” Loki said.He took Thor’s hand and squeezed through a crack between the rocks.Thor followed with more difficulty and they were soon in one of Loki’s favorite hiding places.He’d found that the outcrop was hollow, a rare bubble formed by the ice over the rocks, and he’d helped to shape it into a larger and more regular room.The seidr lamps he’d made on earlier visits reacted to their movements and filled the cave with flickering blue light that glittered off the ice.

Loki had built himself a little nest against the back wall on a shelf of stone, and he’d padded it with soft snow and old bear hides that no one would miss.He came here to think, or read, or practice his spells away from his brothers.He undid the clasp of his coat and let the fur slide off his narrow shoulders.

“Now give me yours,” he said, and his wicked smile encouraged Thor to hurry.He handed Loki the scarlet cape with no thought to how his mother had labored over it, or the spells she had woven into the wool to protect him from cold and danger.Loki took it from him and let his own furs fall to his waist.He caught them before they fell to the ground and stepped out of them, letting Thor have his first glimpse of his lithe blue body.Beneath the dragon seal, he wore only a loose shift made of spider lace, for Loki loved the murderously expensive feel of it against his skin.He held Thor’s cape to his face and inhaled the warm scent of him before he draped it over his own shoulders.Thor was shivering with anticipation and Loki found he was inclined to keep his promise even though he now held what he had wanted.He spread the monster’s fur over the rocky bed and checked that the snow he’d piled there was still soft and pillowy.Thor took off his gloves, his belt, his heavy fur-lined doublet, and his over tunic and stood before Loki in only a thin linen shift and his pants.Loki guided him down onto the bed and ran his hands over Thor’s chest, feeling the hot weight of muscle beneath the thin fabric.

“What did this come from?” Thor asked.He petted the bed covering and his fingers lingered over the dark iridescent spots.

“A dragon seal,” Loki told him.When this failed to impress Thor, he added some detail.“They can bite a grown hunter in half.Only Jotun royalty may lie on their pelts.”

“Are there any around here…?” Thor asked.He stopped shaking for a moment and looked like he was considering something foolish.

“No, they swim in the Northern Sea.The only dragon seals around here are in my closet.”

“Then I suppose I’ll have to save the vanquishing for your bedroom,” Thor joked.

“You will have to do a better job of impressing me with your prowess if you want to go on any more hunting expeditions,” Loki told him.“Your nose is running.”

“S-Sorry,” Thor said.A violent shudder went through him, but he got his nose wiped and returned his attention to Loki.“Y-You r-really are beautiful,” he stammered.He stroked Loki’s skin and tugged the lace away so he could touch the pale, almost white markings that covered him.Thor, Loki realized, had no idea how intimate it was to touch a Jotun’s marks, but he gasped in pleasure at the feeling of another’s hand tracing them.

“You like that?” Thor asked.

“Yes,” Loki hissed.“They are very sensitive.”

“Good,” Thor said.He continued to stroke the marks as Loki worked his shirt and pants open and exposed his blank pink skin to the air.

“You really don’t have any,” Loki said.He wasn’t sure what to do.He’d never imagined a lover with no marks; even the lowest commoner in Jotunheim had a few to identify himself and show his mate where his life forces ran under his skin.

“Is that bad?”

“It’s very bad,” Loki told him.“They only disappear when we die.And how do you prove your lineage?”

“You’d have to take that up with my mother,” Thor said.“Am I ugly to you?”By which he really meant, do you want me to stop?

“No, but you are strange.Will you always be so disagreeably warm?Will your horns never grow in?”Loki kissed Thor’s forehead at the hairline, where his horns should have grown. “What about me?” Loki asked.He was not ashamed to angle for a compliment.

“You know you are beautiful,” Thor murmured.“But I’m not so good with words.Let me show you.”Loki helped him slip off the spider lace shift and Thor began to tease him with his mouth.Loki’s budding breasts ached along with the unfinished slit between his legs, but he still couldn’t force his first change.He could not be considered a full adult until he could slip into his female form, and though some of the secondary characteristics had started to develop, the full shift was still tantalizing, just out of his reach.He feared and longed for it, and it would have been a truly rare gift to let Thor see it.A silly, childish dream to think his true, predestined mate could coax it from him, but Loki didn’t see any harm in trying.Loki let himself be pulled into Thor’s arms, still a little knobby in the elbows if he were honest, and was pleased to see he was changing, as well.He straddled Thor’s waist and kissed him, closing both his eyes this time, and enjoyed the thrill of Thor’s hands brushing the complex markings of his back and buttocks.  

As they groped each other, Thor’s skin got less hot and pink.He was more white now than anything, though there were hints of blue in his fingers and lips.Loki kissed his cool mouth with renewed vigor, excited to see his future husband changing to be more like a Jotun for him.His father had assured him that although he and Thor were very different, they would be compatible; their mating would be truly fortuitous if Thor could meet him halfway.

He let his mouth roam over the pale window of exposed skin, kissing and nipping lower.He had no marks to guide him, but he followed the slight swell of organs under the soft, faintly salty swell of Thor’s belly.Now that he’d grown used to the heat, he could feel the sluggish flow of warm blood that pulsed beneath his tongue.Thor moaned and twisted closer to Loki’s face, his hips bucking weakly as he shuddered with desire.His continuing transition pleased Loki and he wondered if Thor could become wholly Jotun if he just desired it enough.Loki thought if he did, he would surely have markings, and they would be rare and strange and lovely.And only for Loki’s eyes.

“I did promise you something extra, though, didn’t I?Do you still want it?”Thor barely seemed to understand him, but he struggled to remove more of his clothes and nodded.His eyelids fluttered and Loki noticed that his lashes were still fine and golden as they came to rest against his pale face.Loki tugged Thor’s pants further down.He wanted to remove them, but the complex buckles and straps of Asgardian footwear baffled him.He exposed Thor’s cock, nestled in a patch of thick golden fur that Loki immediately preferred to every magnificent pelt in his collection.He ran his fingers around and underneath it, his urgency increasing until he was nearly frantic.

“Where is the rest?” he hissed.He put a palm to each of Thor’s inner thighs and shoved his legs as far apart as he could for a better view.He stared at the unmarked bridge of flesh that ran from behind Thor’s cock to the curve of his buttocks nestled in the thick fur of his coat, wide eyed with horror and something like anger.

“Just…give me a moment, Loki, it’s so cold…”Thor couldn’t blush, but his embarrassment was still clear..

“Are you so immature still?Not even a slit!”He had thought if Thor was coming to court him, he must have already mastered his change, but there was no sign that Thor’s other form had even begun to make itself known.

“What?”

“How long until you can shift?I should have known you were too much a child still for us to practice.”Loki’s anger was mostly for himself.He had no doubt his father would find out, if he hadn’t already, and now Loki wouldn’t even get what he’d wanted out of this bit of disobedience.

“Shift?”

“Yes, shift!I can almost do it all the way,” Loki told him.His own cock had gone hard as soon as Thor had started stroking his marks and his breasts, and the slit between his legs where his vulva would soon come to be dripped and ached with it.How could Thor be so close to his age, older even, and not feel anything?Thor looked totally mystified and Loki’s frustration boiled over at last.“See?” he said.He grabbed Thor’s hand and shoved it between his legs, and though his fingers were clumsy, stiff and chapped with cold, the feel of them on his untouched, unfinished sex was exquisite.Thor’s confusion deepened as he explored and now Loki was the one who shivered.Thor couldn’t seem to think or breathe properly, but at last it came to him.

“You are…both?”

“Of course I’m both!”Loki snapped, but then he paused as an new and troubling idea came to him.“Are you not?”

“No…I’m a man,” Thor breathed and settled back against the furs.His fingers kept going, lingering over the sensitive spot where the base of his cock and the slit of his vulva came together.He gasped in pleasure each time Thor put pressure on it, for his clitoris had begun to bud in its future home, but he found Thor infuriatingly inconsistent.His strokes now felt more like spasms than anything designed to please.

“Even that is debatable,” Loki said.He pulled Thor’s hand away and immediately missed it.“You will always look like this?You have no other form?” Some Jotun had difficulty mastering their shift, or felt such a strong attachment to one in particular that they rarely did it, but one who could not change at all would be thought stunted, even crippled, and viewed with pity.Certainly not fit to mate with royalty, and maybe not with anyone at all.He lay naked against Thor’s chest and let the Odinson’s cloak cover them both like a blanket.

“It is likely I will get bigger,” Thor offered.Under the cloak Thor began to warm again, though Loki was still comfortable curled up with him.

“It says you can in the marriage contract,” Loki accused.

“It does?”

“It is a standard condition,” Loki told him.Had he learned nothing from observing the Jotun?“You cannot think I will bear all our children.I will have the first, but you must produce the second.”His father had carried all three of his sons, of course, but that was out of choice.Their mother Farbauti had been one of the fiercest warriors in Jotunheim before she fell, dying before she even knew she’d sired Byleistr.According to some, King Laufey had loved her so much that he’d continued to mate with her despite the fact that their first was an odd little runt, giving her a chance to repair her legacy by leaving true— by which they meant big— Jotun children.Others thought that the King had been so pleased to have a rare sorcerer that he’d hoped she would give him more, but no one could deny that Laufey had considered her his life’s mate, and Loki would never admit it but he hoped to find such a match himself.But Loki banished all thought of his mother from his mind.He’d spent enough time worrying that she would not approve of what he was doing.

“But I cannot,” Thor sounded both confused and distressed.“Not even to please you.I have no idea why my father would sign such a thing.”

“Maybe he means to trick me into accepting half a mate,” Loki said, his eyes going dark.“Asgard has played us false before.”Loki decided to look on the bright side.“But if so, the trick is on him.If my father agreed, then he thinks it is possible, and the Ancestors must think so too.We will see what the fullness of time shall bring.King Odin will learn that I never settle for half of anything, and I’ve decided to keep you.”He could tell Thor hadn’t caught all of that, but he could feel his cock starting to stir beneath him as the Asgardian’s blood continued to warm up, and Thor must have liked the look in his red eyes, for he smiled back.Loki ran his fingers through the strands of Thor’s hair spread out around him and enjoyed the contrast between golden hair and silver fur, one fine and smooth and alive and the other dense and plush and dead.

“Would you do it, if you could?” Loki purred.“Would you do it to please me?”

“I would do anything if it would please you,” Thor managed.“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”His face had gotten pinker again and his breath and pulse came quick as Loki held his gaze.He wrapped his long fingers around Thor’s cock and gasped at the heat of it.He nearly snatched his fingers away, sure they had burned pale, and stared at Thor in wonder.How could fire and ice ever mate?Thor would burn him up inside, yet Loki found he wanted to shift more than ever so he could take that heat within himself.His heart cracked in his chest and something new blew into him, warm and sweet as the first flowery breath of spring.

“Then I shall give you pleasure,” Loki promised.“Something to remember on your sweltering summer nights.” He couldn’t do what he truly wanted, because his body continued to betray him and refused to mature at his desire.There were also certain vows and assurances that he had to make when they were wedded, and the Ancestors would know if they were not at least technically true.But he had been doing his research, and he thought he’d found something that Asgardians enjoyed that he could do.

He slid down and put his face between Thor’s legs, the beautiful scarlet cape slithering down to rest on his pale thighs.Loki loved the way it held Thor’s warmth and enveloped him in it.He considered Thor’s cock.It was a strange color, but otherwise it seemed comfortingly straightforward, not dissimilar to his own.He took it into his mouth like a spoonful of steaming soup, prepared to burn his tongue on it.Thor gasped in pleasure and thrust up, and Loki’s eyes watered because it did burn, but he wanted this.He wasn’t sure what he should do, now he had gotten to this point.His book had been clear that Asgardians liked to have their lover put their genitals in their mouth, but it hadn’t gone into many specifics.Loki experimented, running his long blue-black tongue up the shaft of it.Thor shuddered and moaned and Loki tried again, faster.Thor bucked against him and twined strong fingers into Loki’s hair, until Loki had to stiffen his neck to keep in control of the depth.

Soon he found his rhythm and began to enjoy himself.The heat wasn’t so bad once he got used to it, and he liked the salt-and-summer taste of Thor, like the flavor of his lips only stronger.Loki worked at Thor, not sure what would happen but eager to find out.He put his own hand between his legs and touched himself as he did it, and he thought he felt an echo of Thor’s heat there.He wanted more of Thor, all of him, and he sucked on him and even teased him with his sharp teeth, as though Thor were a feast and he a starving man.Soon Thor could only moan his name and hold on to his hair, and then not even that.His hands went limp and his voice grew weaker, and Loki thought he must be getting closer to the end.He was a swollen, dripping mess himself and ached to slip his fingers into an opening that had not yet formed.

Thor sighed and his hands spasmed in Loki’s hair.His cock cooled and went soft in Loki’s mouth and Loki came on the furs, but it felt unfinished.He could not get to what he really wanted and his skin felt tight and pinched like someone else’s clothes.They had to get back, he knew, they had likely already been missed, but he wanted Thor’s warm fingers, or maybe his tongue, to see if his mate could reach the itch that he couldn’t seem to scratch himself.His own cock was still half hard even after he’d climaxed.

“Thor,” he said.He nuzzled his cheek against the cool, soft skin of Thor’s inner thigh.Thor lay still against the fur.His lips and fingers were nearly as blue as Loki’s.“Thor?”Loki sat up and gently put Thor’s legs back together.He gave his cyanotic face a light slap, leaving the scent of sex on his skin.“Thor?”His chest rose and fell, but only barely.Loki leaned over and kissed him, but his lips had lost all their supple warmth.Loki sat back, perplexed.He pulled Thor’s furs tighter around his shoulders for comfort, and it came to him: when he was young, he had wanted to build an ice fort with Thor as he did with his brothers, but his father wouldn’t let him.He had warned Loki not to take the Asgardians out of their wing of the palace, but he had always thought this was to preserve propriety.Now, as he tried with growing panic to feel Thor’s breath on his fingers, he thought maybe it was to protect them.And that maybe he shouldn’t have taken his lover’s cloak, no matter how much he desired it.

Loki got to his feet and tried to put Thor’s clothes back on, but they had frozen even stiffer than his body lying on the stone and ice of the cave floor.Finally he wrapped the red cloak back around Thor, tucking it under him like a penance.

“Don’t you dare be dead,” he told him.“I’m in enough trouble.”He scrambled back into his shift and then bundled Thor, his clothes, and the cloak all into his dragon seal coat and scooped him up.Thor muttered and squirmed, but Loki shushed him, then began trying to cram him back through the narrow door.

 

King Laufey of Jotunheim stood with his hands on the Casket of Winter, its watery blue light playing over his face, and felt the pulsing heartbeat of his realm.He slid further into the liminal state that was the Royal Trance and took stock.He felt the slow, salty shift of the tides in the Northern Sea, the brief glitter of fish and the twist of sugar eels, the ponderous, predatory drift of sea dragons and razor whales, and even the great armored kraken squids far beneath the waves.He felt all the lives in the land, and knew what had been born and what had died that day.He knew the weather, and the depth of the permafrost, and the direction of each glacier and ice floe.He let himself fall further down, gently, until his mind reached the very center, and touched a cold so deep and infinite that only the King could hope to survive it.Here he could see the dead of Jotunheim, and hear their constant singing.His ancestors stood all around him, and he looked among their number for his lost wife, unable to stop himself.He did not see her, or hear her voice, as he never did, and never had, and deep in his own heart something onceimmortal died by another degree.

He opened himself to their advice and their knowledge.The dead could be obtuse, and they had their own inscrutable priorities, but they never lied.He felt the now familiar dissension among them, as he had ever since the Allfather had brought him the proposal.Only some of them agreed with the marriage, but he saw no other choice.The Odinson would win his suit, or fail, and Laufey had no further need of their input on the matter.The only one of their number whose opinion he would value stood behind him, sad eyed, and he never heard her speak.Those who did agree with his choice to let the marriage proceed brought another matter to his attention.They showed him danger and dishonor upon his house, should his guest (who might one day, if he proved worthy, be blood of his blood) come to lasting harm while under his protection.

Laufey struggled to lift himself from his trance, back up through the ice and the tides and the whales, and still did not see his lost wife wave farewell.His attendants stood, waiting to take his orders or record what he said in his communion.

“Prepare my sleigh,” the king said, and his clerks glanced at each other in surprise.“Tell them to harness my fastest bears.”Laufey swept his great mantle around his shoulders and went out to retrieve his son.

 

 Loki at last got Thor out of the cave.His hound stood and shook the crust of ice and snow that had formed while he waited from his pelt and Loki used his great bulk to shield Thor from the cutting wind.Snowflakes landed on his eyelids and his pretty golden lashes and did not melt, and Thor made no move to escape them.More than anything else, this filled Loki with dread.  

“Help me, Frosty,” he said.The hound sniffed Thor and whined in distress.He seemed to understand what his master wanted and crouched down, his belly flat on the snow.Loki spread his coat over Frosty’s haunches and laid Thor on top of it, then tucked the crimson cloak over as much of him as he could cover.The hound rose and Loki led him back toward the main palace grounds.With one hand he steadied Thor so he wouldn’t fall off, and with the other he stroked and petted his face, brushing away the snow and feeling for breath and trying to convince himself that his color was better than it had been.

Their progress was wretched.Frosty couldn’t work up any speed held to Loki’s walking pace, and his easy bounding turned into an odd mincing swagger that would have been hilarious if the prince hadn’t been so desperate to get back.His great shoulders rolled and swayed too much even going at quarter speed, and after less than half the distance, Thor finally slid off into the snow.The puff of white he’d found so funny at the start of their adventure now made him want to throw himself down and howl in frustration, but he couldn’t afford to indulge himself.Instead he gathered up Thor again and tried to get them both onto the jotunhound’s broad back.  

He still struggled to situate them when he saw a cloud of disturbed snow in the distance, getting closer quickly.He knew what it had to be, and he’d never felt such a mixture of relief and dread.He wrapped Thor tight, out of the wind, and put his own coat back on.There was no way his father wouldn’t know what had been going on, but he still didn’t want to meet him in his underwear.

When the sleek white bears pulled to a stop, Frosty leapt in front of Loki and growled at them.The bears bellowed back, spittle flying from their frothy mouths, and King Laufey stepped down.The hound bared his throat to them and whimpered, and Laufey patted him.

“Good dog,” he said, and stared down at his son.Loki looked back up at him, grinning his most charming grin, but he saw that what he feared most had come to pass.Laufey did not yell, or hit, or threaten, only looked at his eldest with profound disappointment.After a wordless moment, all trace of the smile had fled Loki’s face, but he offered his father the tightly bundled Thor and Laufey took the prince from him.He remounted his sleigh, turned the bears and drove away without a word, leaving Loki to return on his own.He stood in the snow and watched his father recede into the distance.A tear welled from one eye and Loki scrubbed it roughly away.Frosty— no, he reminded himself, Fenrir— bumped his elbow with his blunt muzzle, and Loki petted him absently.He decided not to hide, but to walk back, and hoped the healers knew what they were about.

 

 

When Thor’s eyes at last fluttered open, Loki was there, watching, wrapped in the crimson cloak.He quickly looked to his new book and pretended he was not paying attention, but Thor had seen, and a smile spread over his face.He was still pale, but pink, and he had not lost any fingers or toes, or any other appendage he’d foolishly exposed to the cold.

“About time,” Loki said.“I wondered how much longer I would have to sit and wait for you.”In truth, he’d nearly begged to be allowed in the room.Only the fact that Thor’s parents believed that Thor had been willing, and that Loki had not meant to hurt him, had kept him from being banished from the healing halls or even confined to his room for the rest of the visit.That and the King’s sure knowledge that he would never stop trying to sneak out.

“Has it been long?”

“Ages.I’ve been bored stiff, and there won’t be any sugar eels left from dinner.”Not unless Helblindi had saved him some, but his brothers were in trouble too and it wasn’t likely.

“Sorry.Were you worried?”

“Of course not,” Loki lied.“But I wanted to give this back to you.”He tried not to show his reluctance as he pulled the cloak from his shoulders, but Thor shook his head.

“No, that’s yours.It was a gift, and I’ll not take it back.”  

“Are you sure?I should not have asked it of you.I didn’t know what would happen, truly.”Loki almost apologized and held the beloved fur against his chest with both hands.He did not want to return it.

“Keep it.It looks good on you,” Thor said.He worked his hand out from under the covers and held it out to Loki.

“Thank you,” Loki said, stiff and formal.“You take mine with you,” he gestured to the dragon seal coat, draped on top of all Thor’s blankets.Thor petted the soft fur for a moment, until Loki took his hand.

“I’ve been planning our wedding,” he offered.He waited for a moment, sure Thor would laugh or call it off after what had happened, but he only looked amused.

“Any idea what I have to do to prove worthy of you?Is your father going to take it easy on me now?”

“No, not at all.Now he must think of a task even more dire than he planned before.”His father’s anger burned cold and slow, and although he had to ask for something that was at least remotely possible, Loki genuinely feared what his father would set forth for Thor now.Loki might have to wait a very long time, even see his brothers wed before him, if his father did not relent.

“I’ll be up to it,” Thor promised.“Tell me about our wedding.”

“I think you should wear something like this.”He turned the book around to an illustration of a newly married couple and pointed to the one that reminded him of Thor, long golden hair done up with a crown of flowers and wearing a gown the color of the summer sky.“It would bring out your eyes.”Thor looked at the picture, at Loki pointing so earnestly to the bride he wanted Thor to be, and choked back a laugh.He stroked Loki’s dark hair and felt an overwhelming fondness for his betrothed.

“If it would please you, my dear, I just might.”

 


End file.
